Well it’s time to strap in and get back on a different roller coaster and one I enjoy – for a comedy return for Melbourne Fringe – in a show called Gold Star Failure…about, you guessed it, throwing feeling like a failure in the bin. And it’s Melbourne Fringe’s 40th birthday and there is a 40 hour flash sale, you can get tickets for 25% off until the 4th of September at 4pm!
Scan the QR code or go to https://melbournefringe.com.au/event/gold-star-failure/
My PhD is action research and that includes an opportunity for me to perform as a way to synthesize some learnings from the research – as participant observation. Why? Because that’s what anthropologists who sometimes do comedy doing a PhD in Political Science do!
So…here it is…complete with awesome artwork by the autistic awesomeness of Garry Foster. Gold Star Failure.
From the child who was banned from Safeway for abusing Father Christmas for being a creeper, to a plethora of adulting fails; Jacci has turned failure into an artform.
They failed childhood. They failed Sunday school. They failed marriage.
Then in early 2020 they nerd-quit live comedy and began PhD research with an unironic title of “You Can’t Laugh at That”.
But after a brief but passionate dalliance with community TV and Midsumma Festival in 2021, the only bug worth having started to return. The stage bug.
For the longest time, Jacci didn’t have imposter syndrome, but composter[1] syndrome. When you come from a long line of nerd haters, it’s tough to discover that your smarts are your best working parts.
They’ve tried to keep their social scientist life and their comedy life apart, but that too, has failed. Jacci ended up studying comedy and that gave them no time for comedy. It’s like the age-old story about the carpenter whose kitchen cupboard doors don’t close. Until they are inspired to fix them and then they are operated by dancing robots[2] and it’s all overkill.
The thing is, when society has low expectations for you, and you exceed them; it makes you worse than a failure. It makes you a nerd. Challenging Australian anti-intelligentsia rhetoric in comedy is probably a bad idea, so that, deserves a Gold Star Failure award.
2021 – Things you can’t say in front of your father, Midsumma Festival, Pride of Our Footscray.
Host of “Talk-ist” talk show on Channel 31 Melbourne and Geelong, produced by BentTV.
2019 – Tickets on Myself (performer, EMCEE and producer), Melbourne Fringe.
2018 – Part I: Vagina Monolaughs, followed by Part II: Total Vagina (performer, EMCEE and producer), Red Hot Arts, Alice Springs. Fundraising showcases for Working Women’s Centre and the Midwives Associations of the Northern Territory.
Labelled Tour (Solo Show); Mayfair Community Gallery, Darwin, Red Hot Arts, Alice Springs, Dive Bar Kings Cross, Sydney Fringe, Hares and Hyenas, Melbourne Fringe.
2017- Three Blokes and a Broad, Adelaide Fringe.
Venue: Festival Hub – Victorian Trades Hall, The Music Room
Dates: Thu 6, Fri 7, Sat 8, Sun 9, Tue 11, Wed 12, Thu 13, Fri 14 October 2022
Time: 5.45 pm Tuesday to Saturdays, 4.45 pm Sunday.
Bookings: www.melbournefringe.com.au
Producer: Sally Goldner. Director: Lucy Best.
| Media contact: Sally Goldner, laughagenda@gmail.com |
[1] Imposter syndrome: thinking you are not as good as you are. Composter syndrome: thinking you are poop.
[2] We regret to inform you that there are no dancing robots in this show. There is musical comedy for some of it, some funny stories and gags about nerd culture. The robots demanded total world dominion, so we declined (there just wasn’t budget?).
Jacci Pillar 